MNRAS 000, 1–18 (2020) Preprint 22 May 2020 Compiled using MNRAS LATEX style file v3.

A molecular absorption line survey toward the AGN of

Hydra-A

Tom Rose1? , A. C. Edge1 , F. Combes2 , S. Hamer3 , B. R. McNamara4 ,

H. Russell5 , M. Gaspari6 †, P. Salomé2 , C. Sarazin7 , G. R. Tremblay8 ,
S. A. Baum9,10 , M. N. Bremer11 , M. Donahue12 , A. C. Fabian13 ,
arXiv:2005.10252v1 [astro-ph.GA] 20 May 2020

G.
1
Ferland14 , N. Nesvadba15 , C. O’Dea9,16 , J. B. R. Oonk17,18,19 , A. B. Peck20
Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Durham University, DH1 3LE, UK
2 LERMA, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research Univ., College de France, CNRS, Sorbonne Univ., Paris, France
3 Department of Physics, University of Bath, North Rd, Bath, BA2 7AY
4 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
5 Centre for Astronomy & Particle Theory, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK
6 Department of Astrophysical Sciences, 4 Ivy Lane, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544-1001, USA
7 Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, 530 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4325, USA
8 Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
9 Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada
10 Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, Rochester Institute of Technology, 84 Lomb Memorial Dr., NY 14623, USA
11 HH Wills Physics Laboratory, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1TL, UK
12 Physics & Astronomy Department, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-2320, USA
13 Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University, Madingly Rd., Cambridge, CB3 0HA, UK
14 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506-0055, USA
15 Université Côte d’Azur, Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Laboratoire Lagrange, Bd de l’Observatoire,

CS 34229, 06304 Nice cedex 4, France

16 School of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester Institute of Technology, 85 Lomb Memorial Drive, USA
17 SURFsara, P.O. Box 94613, 1090 GP Amsterdam, The Netherlands
18 ASTRON, Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, 7990AA Dwingeloo, The Netherlands
19 Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, Niels Borhweg 2, NL-2333 CA Leiden, The Netherlands
20 Gemini Observatory, Northern Operation Center, 67-0 N. A’Ohoku Place, Hilo, HI, USA

Accepted XXX. Received YYY; in original form ZZZ

ABSTRACT
We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations of the bright-
est cluster galaxy Hydra-A, a nearby (z = 0.054) giant elliptical galaxy with powerful
and extended radio jets. The observations reveal CO(1-0), CO(2-1), 13 CO(2-1), CN(2-
1), SiO(5-4), HCO+ (1-0), HCO+ (2-1), HCN(1-0), HCN(2-1), HNC(1-0) and H2 CO(3-
2) absorption lines against the galaxy’s bright and compact active galactic nucleus.
These absorption features are due to at least 12 individual molecular clouds which
lie close to the centre of the galaxy and have velocities of approximately −50 to +10
km s−1 relative to its recession velocity, where negative values correspond to inward
motion. The absorption profiles are evidence of a clumpy interstellar medium within
brightest cluster galaxies composed of clouds with similar column densities, velocity
dispersions and excitation temperatures to those found at radii of several kpc in the
Milky Way. We also show potential variation in a ∼ 10 km s−1 wide section of the
absorption profile over a two year timescale, most likely caused by relativistic motions
in the hot spots of the continuum source which change the background illumination
of the absorbing clouds.
Key words: galaxies: clusters: individual: Hydra-A – galaxies: clusters: general –
radio continuum: galaxies – radio lines: interstellar medium

? E-mail: [email protected] † Lyman Spitzer Jr. Fellow.

© 2020 The Authors

2 Tom Rose et al.
1 INTRODUCTION Until recently all absorption line studies in brightest
cluster galaxies had searched for carbon monoxide (CO).
Recent theories and simulations have predicted that super- Although the detection of these systems with CO alone is
massive black hole accretion is, to a large extent, powered of great value, observing the same absorption regions with
by the chaotic accretion of clumpy molecular gas clouds multiple molecular species has the potential to reveal the
(e.g. Pizzolato & Soker 2005; van de Voort et al. 2012; chemistry and history of the gas in the surroundings of su-
Gaspari et al. 2018). This accretion is just one element of a permassive black holes in much more detail, significantly in-
galaxy-wide, self-regulating fuelling and feedback cycle (Pe- creasing our understanding of the origins of the gas responsi-
terson & Fabian 2006; Voit et al. 2015; McNamara et al. ble for their accretion and feedback mechanisms. Rose et al.
2016; Tremblay et al. 2018). The accreted mass powers radio (2019b) recently presented eight absorbing brightest clus-
jets, which in turn produce shocks and turbulence through- ter galaxies, which included seven with CO absorption and
out the galaxy, as well as inflating buoyant bubbles of hot, seven with low resolution CN absorption. Nevertheless, high
X-ray bright gas. Turbulence, rising bubbles and pressure spectral resolution observations of these absorption systems
waves produced by these shocks cause localised increases in with a wider mix of molecular species are still lacking. This
gas densities, lift clouds to higher altitudes, decrease cool- paper marks the beginning of a campaign to address this
ing times and promote the formation of cold molecular gas issue.
clouds. The outward velocities of these newly formed clouds The observations we present are from an Atacama Large
of molecular gas are typically much lower than the escape Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Cycle 6 survey
velocity, meaning that significant amounts of this newly originally designed to detect the absorption lines of sev-
formed cold molecular gas eventually returns to the centre eral molecular species in Hydra-A, namely CO, 13 CO, C18 O,
of the galaxy to further fuel the feedback loop (for a short CN, HCN and HCO+ . A multi-wavelength view of Hydra-A
review see Gaspari et al. 2020). which highlights its main features can be seen in Fig. 1. The
Observing gas in the cold molecular phase is essential galaxy is already known to have by far the most optically
if we are to understand the wider cycle of accretion and thick CO absorption of this type, caused by clouds of cold,
feedback. For many decades this has been best achieved molecular gas lying along the line of sight to the bright radio
with molecular emission line studies (recent examples in- source which is spatially coincident with the supermassive
clude Garcı́a-Burillo et al. 2014; Temi et al. 2018; Ruffa et al. black hole (Rose et al. 2019a). These clouds are almost en-
2019; Olivares et al. 2019). However, the emission lines of tirely composed of hydrogen, though small but significant
individual molecular clouds are relatively weak, so studying amounts of these less common molecules are present at suf-
the molecular gas in this way can only be used to reveal ficient abundances to produce detectable absorption lines.
the behaviour of large ensembles of molecular gas clouds. In Although no study of a single source can ever be repre-
recent years, several studies have been able to observe molec- sentative of a whole family of astronomical objects, Hydra-A
ular gas in the central regions of brightest cluster galaxies is a prime target for a study of this type for several rea-
through absorption, rather than emission (David et al. 2014; sons, perhaps most importantly because it is a giant ellip-
Tremblay et al. 2016; Ruffa et al. 2019; Rose et al. 2019a,b; tical galaxy with a near perfectly edge-on disc of dust and
Nagai et al. 2019; Combes et al. 2019). The key advantage molecular gas, which should readily produce absorption lines
of these studies is that they are able to detect the presence in the spectrum of any radio source lying behind it (Hamer
of molecular clouds in small groups, or even individually be- et al. 2014). Perpendicular to the disc are powerful radio jets
cause they make use of a bright central core, against which and lobes which propagate out of the galaxy’s centre and
it is possible to observe molecular absorption along very nar- into the surrounding X-ray luminous cluster (Taylor et al.
row lines of sight. 1990). Over several gigayears the galaxy’s AGN outbursts
Absorption line studies can be split into two main have created multiple cavities in this X-ray emitting gas via
groups: intervening absorbers and associated absorbers. In- the repeated action of these radio jets and lobes (Hansen
tervening absorbers take advantage of chance alignments be- et al. 1995; Hamer et al. 2014). Hydra-A is a particularly
tween galaxies and background quasars, while associated ab- useful target for a study of molecular absorption because it
sorbers use the radio source coincident with a galaxy’s su- is an extremely bright radio source, with one of the high-
permassive black hole as a bright backlight. Associated ab- est flux densities in the 3C catalogue of radio sources (Edge
sorber systems are particularly useful because when using a et al. 1959). Combined with its compact and unresolved na-
galaxy’s bright radio core as a backlight, redshifted absorp- ture, this high flux density makes it an ideal backlight for
tion unambiguously indicates inflow and blueshifted lines an absorption line survey. This is particularly true in our
indicate outflow. In these cases it is possible to make direct case where we have aimed to detect molecular species with
observations of gas with knowledge of how it is moving rela- relatively low column densities, such as CO isotopologues.
tive to the supermassive black hole and which may even be Previous observations across several wavelength bands also
in the process of accretion, as has been done by David et al. suggest that the galaxy’s core contains a significant mass of
(2014); Tremblay et al. (2016); Rose et al. (2019b), where both atomic and molecular gas e.g. CO and CN absorption
molecular absorption due to clouds moving at hundreds of by Rose et al. (2019a,b), H I absorption by Dwarakanath
km s−1 towards their host supermassive black holes has been et al. (1995); Taylor (1996), CO emission by Hamer et al.
detected. From the nine associated absorber systems found (2014), and H2 studies by Edge et al. (2002); Donahue et al.
in brightest cluster galaxies to date, a tendency has emerged (2011); Hamer et al. (2014).
for these absorbing molecular gas clouds to have bulk mo- Throughout the paper, velocity corrections applied to
tions toward the host supermassive black holes (Rose et al. the spectra of Hydra-A use a redshift of z = 0.0544±0.0001,
2019b). which provides the best estimate of the systemic velocity

MNRAS 000, 1–18 (2020)

 Molecular Absorption in Hydra-A 3

AGN

radio lobes

edge-on molecular gas disc

traced by CO(2-1) emission

AGN

Molecular absorption against AGN backlight

Figure 1. A multi-wavelength view of Hydra-A’s AGN, radio lobes and edge-on molecular gas disc. Top left: An unmasked 5 GHz Karl
G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) image showing the galaxy’s AGN and its radio lobes emanating to the north and south, with 0.19
arcsec pixel−1 resolution (Project 13B-088). Top right: A 0.29 arcsec pixel−1 spectral index map of the AGN and radio lobes, produced
from continuum images at 92 and 202 GHz which were taken as part of our ALMA survey. Centre: A 0.05 arcsec pixel−1 F814W Hubble
Space Telescope (HST) near-infrared image (Mittal et al. 2015). Overlaid is a velocity map which traces the galaxy’s edge-on disc of cold
molecular gas, produced using our ALMA observations of CO(2-1) emission. Centre left and right: The spectra of CO(2-1) emission
from the red and blueshifted sides of the edge-on disc, also extracted from the ALMA data presented in this paper. Bottom: Some of
the principal absorption lines seen against the continuum source at the galaxy centre, which we explore in this paper. The absorption is
produced by the cold molecular gas within the disc which lies along the line of sight to the bright radio core.

MNRAS 000, 1–18 (2020)

4 Tom Rose et al.

CO(1-0) 13 CO(2-1) CO(2-1) HCO+ (1-0) HCO+ (2-1)

Target lines C18 O(2-1) CN(2-1) HCN(1-0) HCN(2-1)
SiO(5-4) H2 CO(3-2) HNC(1-0)

Observation date 2018 Jul 18 2018 Dec 12 2018 Oct 30 2019 Sep 24 2018 Nov 16
Integration time (mins) 44 215 95 48 85
Velocity width per channel (km s−1 ) 2.7 1.4 0.7 1.7 0.9
Frequency width per channel (kHz) 977 977 488 488 488
Beam dimensions (”) 2.3 × 1.6 0.60 × 0.46 0.27 × 0.25 0.47 × 0.29 0.38 × 0.32
Spatial resolution (kpc) 1.71 0.54 0.29 0.44 0.36
Precipitable water vapour (mm) 2.85 1.59 0.96 3.21 1.04
Field of view (arcsec) 56.9 28.9 26.1 63.3 33.4
ALMA band 3 5 6 3 5
ALMA configuration C43-1 C43-4 C43-5 C43-6 C43-5
Maximum baseline (m) 161 784 1400 2500 1400
Noise/channel (mJy/beam) 1.01 0.27/0.27/0.27 1.33/0.47/0.47 0.58/0.56/0.58 0.57/0.63

Table 1. A summary of the observational details for the ALMA data presented in this paper. Each column of the table represents a
different observation, with most containing multiple target lines.

of the galaxy. This redshift is calculated from MUSE ob- hydrogen, which has no rotational lines due to its lack of
servations of stellar absorption lines (ID: 094.A-0859) and polarization. CO is relatively abundant within the centres
corresponds to a recession velocity of 16294±30 km s−1 . At of brightest cluster galaxies and has many rotational lines
this redshift, there is a spatial scale of 1.056 kpc arcsec−1 , which are sufficiently populated to produce observable emis-
meaning that kpc and arcsec scales are approximately equiv- sion and absorption lines. The variation in the absorption
alent. The CO(2-1) emission line produced by the molecular strengths of these different rotational lines can be used to
gas disc also provides a second estimate for the galaxy’s re- estimate the excitation temperature of the gas (Mangum &
cession velocity of 16284 km s−1 , though this value has a Shirley 2015). The strength of each absorption line is de-
larger uncertainty due to potential gas sloshing. pendent on the number of CO molecules in each rotational
state, which itself is determined by the gas excitation tem-
perature. Therefore, the ratio of the optical depths for vari-
ous absorption lines of CO can give a direct measure of the
2 OBSERVATIONS AND TARGET LINES
gas excitation temperature, assuming that the lines are not
Observations at the expected frequencies of the CO(1- optically thick.
0), CO(2-1), 13 CO(2-1), C18 O(2-1), CN(2-1), HCO+ (1-0), • 13 CO, when seen at high column densities, is normally
HCO+ (2-1), HCN(1-0), HCN(2-1) and HNC(1-0) rotational associated with galaxy mergers and ultra-luminous infrared
lines in Hydra-A were carried out between 2018 July 18 galaxies (Taniguchi et al. 1999; Glenn & Hunter 2001), while
and 2018 Dec 12. The CO(1-0) observation was carried CO/13 CO values have been shown to correlate with star for-
out as part of an ALMA Cycle 4 survey (2016.1.01214.S), mation and top heavy initial mass functions (Davis 2014;
and the remaining were part of an ALMA Cycle 6 survey Sliwa et al. 2017). Variation in the CO/13 CO ratio is also
(2018.1.01471.S). Absorption from all of these lines except seen within the Milky Way and other galaxies, with decreas-
C18 O(2-1) was detected. Serendipitous detections of SiO(5- ing values associated with proximity to the galaxy centre as
4) and H2 CO(3-2) were also made during the observations a result of astration (Wilson 1999; Paglione et al. 2001; Van-
of the target lines. The main details for each observation are tyghem et al. 2017). 13 CO is typically at least an order of
given in Table 1. For these observations, Figs. 2 and 3 show magnitude less abundant than CO, so the absorption lines
the spectra seen against the bright radio source at the centre of this isotopolgue can be used to distinguish between op-
of the galaxy. All are extracted from a region centered on tically thick clouds with a low covering fraction and more
the continuum source with a size equal to the synthesized diffuse clouds which cover an entire continuum source. For
beam’s FHWM. example, if a molecular cloud extinguishes 10 per cent of
With such a wide range of molecular lines targeted, the a continuum source’s flux in CO(1-0), it may be an opti-
properties of the gas clouds responsible for the absorption cally thin cloud with τ = 0.1, or an optically thick cloud
can be revealed in significant detail. A short summary of (i.e. τ  1) covering 10 per cent of the continuum. 13 CO(1-
the particular properties each molecular species can reveal 0) could distinguish between these scenarios; its absorption
about the absorbing gas clouds is provided below, as well as would be much more significant and more easily detected in
references to more in depth information for the interested the case of an optically thick cloud.
reader. The dipole moments for the molecules observed are
given in Table 2, along with the critical density and rest • C18 O contains the stable oxygen-18 isotope, which is
frequency of each line. predominantly produced in the cores of stars above 8 M 
(Iben 1975). The ratio of the absorption strength seen from
• CO (carbon monoxide) has a relatively small electric 13 CO, C18 O, and other CO isotopologues can therefore be
dipole moment which allows it to undergo collisional exci- used as a probe of the star formation history of the molecular
tation easily. This makes it readily visible in emission and gas in which the molecules are observed (see Papadopoulos
as a result it is commonly used as a tracer of molecular et al. 1996; Zhang et al. 2018; Brown & Wilson 2019).

MNRAS 000, 1–18 (2020)

 Molecular Absorption in Hydra-A 5

G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 G8 G9 G10 G11 G12

1.0
.

0.8 CO(1-0)

1.0

0.5 CO(2-1)
Continuum-Normalized Flux

1.00

13
0.95 CO(2-1)
1.025

1.000

0.975 C18 O(2-1)

1.0

0.8
CN(2-1)

1.00

0.95
SiO(5-4)
0.90
−60 −50 −40 −30 −20 −10 0 10 20
−1
Velocity (km s )

Figure 2. Absorption profiles observed against the bright and compact radio continuum source at the centre of Hydra-A, which is
spatially coincident with the brightest cluster galaxy’s AGN and supermassive black hole. These spectra have a very narrow velocity
range of approximately 80 km s−1 in order to show the absorption features clearly. The full width of the observed spectra is typically
2000 km s−1 , though no absorption features outside the velocity range shown are apparent. The spectra are extracted from a region with
a size equal to the FWHM of each observation’s synthesized beam. Red and green lines show the individual and combined 12-Gaussian
best fits, where each of the 12 Gaussians has a freely varying amplitude across all of the spectra, but a fixed FWHM and central velocity
(as indicated by the arrows at the top of the plot). The process by which the best fits are found is described in §3. Some of the 12
Gaussian lines may appear weak and unconvincing in some spectra, but all are resolved and detected to high significance in at least one
absorption line. No reliable best fits are found for C18 O(2-1) or SiO(5-4). Continued in Fig. 3.

MNRAS 000, 1–18 (2020)

6 Tom Rose et al.

G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 G8 G9 G10 G11 G12

1.0
.

0.5 HCO+ (1-0)

1.0

0.5
HCO+ (2-1)

1.0
Continuum-Normalized Flux

0.8
(contains significant hyperfine structre) HCN(1-0)
0.6
1.00

0.75
HCN(2-1)
0.50
1.0

0.9 HNC(1-0)

1.0

H2 CO(3-2)
0.9

−60 −50 −40 −30 −20 −10 0 10 20

−1
Velocity (km s )

Figure 3. Continued from Fig. 2. Note that the CN(2-1), HCN(1-0) and HCN(2-1) lines all contain hyperfine structure.

• CN (cyanido radical) molecules are primarily produced umn densities can also be induced by the strong X-ray radi-
by photodissociation reactions of HCN. Its emission lines are ation fields found close to AGN (Meijerink et al. 2007). Ob-
therefore normally indicative of molecular gas in the pres- servations of CN emission lines from nearby galaxies show
ence of a strong ultraviolet radiation field (for a detailed internal variation in the CO/CN line ratios of around a fac-
overview of the origins of CN, see Boger & Sternberg 2005). tor of three Wilson (2018). System to system variation in
Models have shown that the production of CN at high col- the CO/CN ratio of at least an order of magnitude is also

MNRAS 000, 1–18 (2020)

 Molecular Absorption in Hydra-A 7
observed in the absorption lines of brightest cluster galaxies the appearance of the spectrum. HCN(1-0) contains hyper-
Rose et al. (2019b). fine structure at separations which make resolving the 12
• SiO (silicon monoxide) is associated with warm, star- absorption regions unfeasible.
forming regions of molecular gas, where it is enhanced
by several orders of magnitude compared with darker and
colder molecular gas clouds. As a result, SiO is normally 3.1 Line fitting procedure
linked to dense regions and shocks, though it has occasion- Figs. 2 and 3 show that the relative strengths of the ab-
ally been detected in low density molecular gas via absorp- sorption seen in a given velocity range of the spectrum can
tion (e.g. Peng et al. 1995; Muller et al. 2013). vary significantly between the molecular tracers. For exam-
• HCO+ (formyl cation) and HCN (hydrogen cyanide) ple, in the CO(2-1) and H2 CO(3-2) spectra, the absorption
are tracers of low density molecular gas when seen in ab- features represented by G2 and G9 are the strongest. In
sorption, since it is only at low densities that the molecules CO(2-1) the first is significantly stronger than the second,
are not collisionally excited to high J-levels. Their absorp- wheres for H2 CO(3-2) the reverse is true. The absorption
tion lines have been detected in a handful of intervening is nevertheless produced by the same two regions of molec-
absorber systems, e.g. Wiklind & Combes (1997a); Muller ular gas, which will have the same velocity dispersion, σ,
et al. (2011). Due to their large electric dipole moments, the and central velocity, vcen , since they are determined by the
molecules have often been detected with relative ease despite clouds’ gas dynamics and not the abundance of the molecu-
being much less abundant than e.g. CO or CN (e.g. Lucas & lar tracer they are observed with. To reflect this, we find a
Liszt 1996; Liszt & Lucas 2001; Gerin et al. 2019; Kameno common multi-Gaussian best fit line which is composed of
et al. 2020). several Gaussian lines. Each has a fixed σ and vcen across
• HNC (hydrogen isocyanide) is a tautomer of HCN. all of the spectra, but a freely varying amplitude.
Thanks to its similar structure, it can be used as a tracer of To find the minimum number of Gaussian lines needed
gas properties in a similar manner to HCN and HCO+ . HNC for a good fit, and their σ and vcen , we start with the
detections may also useful in combination with those of HCN three best resolved absorption lines: CO(2-1), HCO+ (2-1)
because of an observed dependence of the I (HCN)/I (HCN) and HCN(2-1). An initial fit was made using 10 Gaussian
ratio on the gas kinetic temperature (Hernández Vera et al. lines. This is the number which are clearest to the eye on
2017; Hacar et al. 2019). initial inspection of the spectra. In the final fits to the data
• H2 CO (formaldehyde) is highly prevalent toward H II shown in the plots, these initial 10 are labeled as G1, G2,
regions and has been found throughout the interstellar G3, G4, G6, G7, G8, G9, G10 and G11. G1, G2, G3, G4,
medium at relatively high abundances which do not vary G6, G7 are most easily seen in the HCO+ (2-1) profile, while
significantly, even in particularly chaotic regions (Henkel G8, G9, G10 and G11 are clearest in the HCN(2-1) profile.
et al. 1983; Downes et al. 1980; Ginard et al. 2012). The For the three spectra, best fits are found for a range of σ
molecule has several pathways of formation within the in- and vcen . The values which provide the lowest reduced χ2
terstellar medium, split into two main groupings. First, it across the three spectra are then used as the basis of the
can form on the icy surfaces of dust grains. Second, it can best fit line for all of the spectra. With a fixed σ and vcen ,
be produced more directly in the gas phase. The formation the amplitudes of the Gaussian lines are then the only free
of H2 CO on dust grains requires CO to be frozen onto the parameters.
surface, so this mechanism mainly contributes to H2 CO gas The initial 10 Gaussian fit is found to be insufficient,
at distances of hundreds of AU from stars, where tempera- with > 5σ absorption remaining in the residuals across sev-
tures are low enough for volatile molecules to condense (Qi eral neighbouring channels. Two more Gaussians are added
et al. 2013; Loomis et al. 2015). to the best fit line (labelled G5 and G12 in the final fit) to
account for this extra absorption. Once again, the values of
σ and vcen which provide the lowest reduced χ2 across the
three spectra are then used as the basis of the best fit line
3 DATA PROCESSING
for all of the spectra. The minimum number of Gaussians
The data presented throughout this paper were handled us- required to provide a good fit for all of the lines is found to
ing CASA version 5.6.0, a software package which is pro- be 12. The σ and vcen of these lines is given in Table 3.
duced and maintained by the National Radio Astronomy It is possible that some of the regions represented by
Observatory (NRAO) (McMullin et al. 2007). The calibrated each Gaussian line are made up from absorption due to
data were produced by the ALMA observatory and following multiple molecular clouds, rather than an individual one.
their delivery, we made channel maps at maximal spectral If this is true a small shift in the central velocity of each
resolution. The self-calibration of the images was done as Gaussian line across the different molecular transitions may
part of the pipeline calibration. result from any temperature, density or velocity dispersion
The values used when converting from the frequencies gradient which exists along the line of sight. This was inves-
observed to velocities are given in Table 2. The CN absorp- tigated for each molecular absorption line by allowing the
tion profile in Fig. 2 is composed of three unresolved hyper- vcen of each Gaussian line to vary as a free parameter dur-
fine structure lines of the N= 2-1, J=5/2-3/2 transition. We ing the fitting process. The vcen values resulting from this
use the intensity weighted mean of these lines as the rest process were consistent with the fixed values, so it is not
frequency. The full CN(2-1) spectrum, including all of its evident that this issue affects the fits shown in Figs. 2 and
observed hyperfine structure lines, can be seen in Appendix 3.
A. HCN(2-1) also contains hyperfine structure, though it is When applying the final 12 Gaussian fit to all of the
closely spaced enough that it does not significantly affect spectra, the σ are fixed while the vcen are pinned to a com-

MNRAS 000, 1–18 (2020)

8 Tom Rose et al.

Transition Dipole Moment / D Critical Density / cm−3 Frequency / GHz Detected

CO(1-0) 0.112 4.1 × 102 115.271208 Yes

CO(2-1) ” 2.7 × 103 230.538000 Yes
13 CO(2-1) 0.112 2.7 × 103 220.398684 Yes
C18 O(2-1) 0.112 2.7 × 103 219.560354 No
CN(2-1) 1.450 1.4 × 106 226.874783* Yes
SiO(5-4) 3.098 1.7 × 106 217.104980 Yes
HCO+ (1-0) 3.300 2.3 × 104 89.188525 Yes
HCO+ (2-1) ” 2.2 × 105 178.375056 Yes
HCN(1-0) 2.980 1.1 × 105 88.631602* Yes
HCN(2-1) ” 1.1 × 106 177.261117* Yes
HNC(1-0) 3.050 7.0 × 104 90.663568 Yes
H2 CO(3-2) 2.331 4.5 × 105 225.697775 Yes

*intensity weighted mean of hyperfine structure lines

Table 2. Dipole moments, critical densities and rest frequencies for the molecules discussed in this paper. The critical densities are
calculated at kinetic temperatures of 100 K.

Line vcen / km s−1 σ / km s−1 Tex / K D / pc Mtot / M

G1 −47.7 1.3 5.1 +0.5 1.7 330

−0.4
G2 −43.1 1.4 21.0 +54.6 2.0 450
−7.6
G3 −39.1 1.5 4.7 +0.3 2.3 600
−0.3
G4 −37.2 0.6 9.7 +3.8 0.4 33
−2.4
G5 −33.0 2.2 4.3 +4.6 4.8 2.7 × 103
−1.3
G6 −25.4 2.5 4.6 +0.7 6.3 4.6 × 103
−0.5
G7 −16.0 3.7 4.8 +0.3 13.7 2.2 × 104
−0.3
G8 −8.3 1.2 3.4 +0.6 1.0 430
−0.4
G9 −4.0 1.0 7.2 +1.0 1.0 430
−0.8
G10 −1.7 0.7 4.9 +1.8 0.5 40
−1.0
G11 0.9 1.4 4.5 +0.5 2.0 450
−0.4
G12 10.8 4.0 3.5 +0.7 16.0 7.5 × 103
−0.5

Table 3. The central velocities, velocity dispersions, excitation temperatures and corresponding diameters and masses of the absorption
regions which make up the 12-Gaussian fit applied to each of the spectra shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The fitting procedure by which the
central velocities and velocity dispersions are found is described in detail in §3. The excitation temperatures are estimated from the
HCO+ (1-0) and HCO+ (2-1) lines using using Equation 2, while the sizes and masses are found using a size-linewidth relation and with
the assumption of virial equilibrium (see §6.2).

mon value, but allowed to vary by up to an amount equal and lowest results for each of the fits (i.e. 68.27 per cent of
to the spectrum’s velocity resolution. The amplitude of each the fitted parameters will therefore lie within this 1σ range).
Gaussian is the only free parameter and is able to take any
value less than or equal to zero. The ∼ 109 M  of molecular gas that is present across
the disc of the galaxy produces broad CO(1-0) and CO(2-
To find a final best fit line and errors for the spectra, we 1) emission lines with FWHM of hundreds of km s−1 (Rose
use a Monte Carlo approach. For each spectrum the noise et al. 2019a, fig. 2). Since we are primarily interested in the
was estimated from the root mean square (RMS) of the con- significantly more narrow absorption features which lie at
tinuum emission. This was calculated after excluding the re- the centre of the emission, the emission is removed from
gion where any emission or absorption is visible. Following the spectra in the following way. First, a Gaussian fit is
this, 10 000 simulated spectra are created based upon the made to the emission. During the fitting process, the spec-
observed spectrum. To produce each simulated spectrum, tral bins in which absorption can be seen are masked, ap-
a Gaussian distribution is created for each velocity chan- proximately −50 to +10 km s−1 . This masking region was
nel. This Gaussian distribution is centred at the intensity chosen by performing Gaussian fits to the emission after ap-
in the observed spectrum for that particular velocity chan- plying masks to the spectra with limits at every spectral bin
nel, and has a variance equal to the RMS noise squared. A between −55 ± 10 km s−1 and +5 ± 10 km s−1 . The chosen
random value for the intensity is drawn from the Gaussian range produces a spectrum with the lowest χν2 value when
distribution and when this has been done across all veloc- the non-masked, emission-subtracted region is fitted to a
ity channels, a simulated spectrum is produced. The fitting flat line. Corresponding emission lines are not visible in the
procedure described above is then applied to each simulated other molecular species due to their higher electric dipole
spectrum to estimate the strength of each of the 12 Gaussian moments, which makes collisional excitation less likely. The
absorption regions. The upper and lower 1σ errors are taken molecular emission lines are therefore so faint as to be un-
from the values which delimit the 15.865 per cent highest detectable given the integration times of our observations.

MNRAS 000, 1–18 (2020)

 Molecular Absorption in Hydra-A 9

G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6

vcen / km s−1 −47.7 −43.1 −39.1 −37.2 −33.0 −25.4

σ / km s−1 1.3 1.4 1.5 0.6 2.2 2.5

CO(1-0) τ
∫ max 0.07 +0.02
−0.02
0.35 +0.04
−0.04
< 0.07 < 0.04 < 0.01 < 0.03
τdv / km s−1 0.10 +0.03
−0.03
0.52 +0.06
−0.05
< 0.1 < 0.06 < 0.02 < 0.05
N / ×1015 cm−2 +0.1
0.2 −0.1 13.1 +1.5 < 0.2 < 0.4 < 0.1 < 0.2
−1.3

CO(2-1) τ
∫ max 0.10 +0.01
−0.01
- 0.15 +0.01
−0.01
0.13 +0.02
−0.02
< 0.02 0.086 +0.007
−0.008
τdv / km s−1 0.15 +0.02
−0.02
- 0.22 +0.02
−0.02
0.20 +0.03
−0.03
< 0.03 0.13 +0.01
−0.01
N / ×1014 cm−2 4.0 +0.3
−0.5
- 5.4 +0.4
−0.4
11.8 +1.8
−1.2
< 0.5 3.0 +0.3
−0.2

13 CO(2-1) τ
∫ max < 0.03 0.07 +0.01
−0.02
< 0.02 < 0.01 < 0.02 < 0.02
τdv / km s−1 < 0.04 0.103 +0.022
−0.022
< 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.03 < 0.03
N / ×1013 cm−2 < 9.0 224.5 +41.4
−54.5
<3 <1 <7 <8

CN(2-1)∗ τ
∫ max 0.03 +0.01
−0.01
0.43 +0.02
−0.02
0.11 +0.01
−0.01
0.02 +0.01
−0.01
< 0.03 0.09 +0.01
−0.01
τdv / km s−1 0.04 +0.01
−0.01
0.64 +0.03
−0.03
0.17 +0.02
−0.02
0.04 +0.02
−0.02
< 0.04 0.14 +0.01
−0.01
N / ×1012 cm−2 1.0 +0.3
−0.3
159 +8
−8
4.1 +0.5
−0.5
2.3 +1.2
−1.2
< 0.8 3.3 +0.2
−0.2

HCO+ (1-0) τ
∫ max 0.29 +0.02
−0.02
1.29 +0.07
−0.06
0.40 +0.02
−0.02
0.18 +0.02
−0.02
0.04 +0.01
−0.01
0.13 +0.01
−0.01
τdv / km s−1 0.44 +0.03
−0.03
1.9 +0.1
−0.1
0.59 +0.03
−0.03
0.26 +0.04
−0.03
0.05 +0.02
−0.02
0.19 +0.02
−0.02
N / ×1012 cm−2 +0.1
1.8 −0.1 310 +20 +0.1
2.3 −0.1 +0.5
3.1 −0.4 +0.1
0.1 −0.1 +0.1
0.6 −0.1
−20

HCO+ (2-1) τ
∫ max 0.36 +0.01
−0.01
- 0.44 +0.01
−0.01
0.37 +0.02
−0.02
0.03 +0.01
−0.01
0.14 +0.01
−0.01
τdv / km s−1 0.54 +0.02
−0.02
- 0.66 +0.02
−0.02
0.55 +0.03
−0.03
0.05 +0.01
−0.01
0.21 +0.01
−0.01
N / ×1012 cm−2 2.4 +0.1
−0.1
- 2.7 +0.1
−0.1
6.0 +0.3
−0.3
0.2 +0.1
−0.1
0.7 +0.1
−0.1

HCN(2-1) τ
∫ max 0.15 +0.02
−0.02
0.88 +0.06
−0.06
0.30 +0.02
−0.02
0.15 +0.03
−0.03
0.03 +0.01
−0.01
0.08 +0.01
−0.01
τdv / km s−1 0.22 +0.03
−0.03
1.31 +0.09
−0.09
0.45 +0.04
−0.04
0.23 +0.05
−0.05
0.05 +0.02
−0.02
0.12 +0.02
−0.02
N / ×1012 cm−2 1.1 +0.2
−0.2
84.6 +5.8
−5.8
2.2 +0.2
−0.2
2.9 +0.6
−0.6
0.2 +0.1
−0.1
0.5 +0.1
−0.1

HNC(1-0) τ
∫ max 0.02 +0.01
−0.01
0.15 +0.02
−0.02
0.04 +0.01
−0.01
0.02 +0.02
−0.02
0.01 +0.01
−0.01
0.01 +0.01
−0.01
τdv / km s−1 0.02 +0.02
−0.02
0.23 +0.03
−0.03
0.07 +0.02
−0.02
0.03 +0.03
−0.03
0.02 +0.01
−0.01
0.01 +0.01
−0.01
N / ×1011 cm−2 0.8 +0.8
−0.8
114.6 +14.9
−14.9
2.6 +0.7
−0.7
3.5 +3.5
−3.5
0.6 +0.3
−0.3
0.4 +0.4
−0.4

H2 CO(3-2) τ
∫ max < 0.02 0.10 +0.01
−0.01
< 0.02 < 0.02 < 0.02 < 0.01
τdv / km s−1 < 0.03 0.15 +0.01
−0.01
< 0.04 < 0.03 < 0.02 < 0.02
N / ×1013 cm−2 <4 55 +6
−3
<6 <9 <4 <7

Table 4. The peak optical depths, velocity integrated optical depths and line of sight column densities for the 12-Gaussian fits applied
to each of the spectra shown in Figs. 2 and 3. A fit composed of 12 individual Gaussian lines (labelled G1 to G12) of fixed vcen and σ,
but varying amplitude, is used when fitting to the spectra. Column densities for G2 could not always be reliably calculated because it is
optically thick in some of the lines. Continued in Table 5.
*The values for CN(2-1) are calculated from three overlapping hyperfine structure lines representing ∼ 60 per cent of the total absorption.
The full CN(2-1) spectrum is shown in Appendix A.

3.2 Optical depth calculations an optically thick cloud. This in turn implies that the G2
feature covers around 70 per cent of the continuum source.
The apparent optical depth of an absorption line, τ, can be
derived according to the equation, No highly significant 13 CO(2-1) absorption is detected
  in the rest of the absorption profile, as would be expected in
1 Iobs the case of optically thick clouds which cover a small fraction
τ = − ln 1 − , (1)
fc Icont of the continuum. Hence, we assume a covering factor of fc =
where fc is the fraction of the background continuum source 1 for the remaining absorption features. It is nevertheless
covered by the absorbing molecular cloud, Iobs is the depth possible that we are observing optically thin clouds which
of the absorption, and Icont is the continuum level. do not cover the entire continuum source, so our estimates
We assume a covering factor of 0.7 for the G2 absorption of τ are essentially lower limits. Additionally, it is generally
feature at −43.1 km s−1 . Simply assuming fc = 1 gives a assumed that as frequency increases, the emission from an
relatively high 13 CO(2-1) optical depth of τ = 0.07, so for AGN originates closer to its core, so the covering factor may
the significantly more ubiquitous CO(2-1), we would expect also increase with frequency.
τ  1 and for the continuum normalized flux to drop to For each spectrum, the implied optical depths of the 12
0. In fact, the line flattens out when around 30 percent of Gaussian regions are given in Tables 4 and 5. The tables also
the continuum can still be seen, despite being covered by give their velocity integrated optical depths and the implied

MNRAS 000, 1–18 (2020)

10 Tom Rose et al.

G7 G8 G9 G10 G11 G12

vcen / km s−1 −16.0 −8.3 −4.0 −1.7 0.9 10.8

σ / km s−1 3.7 1.2 1.0 0.7 1.4 4.0

CO(1-0) τ 0.05 +0.01 < 0.02 < 0.06 < 0.04 < 0.06 < 0.03
∫ max −0.01
τdv / km s−1 0.08 +0.02 < 0.02 < 0.06 < 0.06 < 0.08 < 0.04
−0.02
N / ×1015 cm−2 0.20 +0.04 < 0.1 < 0.3 < 0.3 < 0.3 < 0.2
−0.04

CO(2-1) τ
∫ max 0.12 +0.01
−0.01
< 0.03 0.18 +0.01
−0.01
< 0.03 < 0.02 < 0.01
τdv / km s−1 0.18 +0.01
−0.01
< 0.05 0.27 +0.02
−0.02
< 0.06 < 0.03 < 0.02
N / ×1014 cm−2 4.4 +0.3
−0.2
< 0.5 11.3 +0.7
−0.9
<1 < 0.6 < 0.2

13 CO(2-1) τ
∫ max < 0.01 < 0.3 < 0.01 < 0.01 < 0.02 < 0.01
τdv / km s−1 < 0.02 < 0.04 < 0.007 < 0.01 < 0.03 < 0.02
N / ×1013 cm−2 <3 <7 <2 <3 < 10 <3

CN(2-1)∗ τ
∫ max 0.10 +0.01
−0.01
0.03 +0.01
−0.01
0.32 +0.02
−0.02
0.04 +0.01
−0.01
0.07 +0.01
−0.01
0.02 +0.01
−0.01
τdv / km s−1 0.14 +0.01
−0.01
0.04 +0.02
−0.02
0.48 +0.02
−0.02
0.06 +0.02
−0.02
0.11 +0.02
−0.02
0.03 +0.01
−0.01
N / ×1012 cm−2 3.5 +0.2
−0.2
0.7 +0.3
−0.3
22.0 +0.9
−0.9
1.5 +0.5
−0.5
2.5 +0.5
−0.5
0.5 +0.2
−0.2

HCO+ (1-0) τ
∫ max 0.18 +0.01
−0.01
0.10 +0.02
−0.02
0.29 +0.02
−0.02
0.11 +0.02
−0.02
0.17 +0.02
−0.02
0.06 +0.01
−0.01
τdv / km s−1 0.26 +0.01 0.15 +0.02 0.43 +0.03 0.16 +0.03 0.25 +0.02 0.09 +0.01
−0.01 −0.02 −0.03 −0.03 −0.02 −0.01
N / ×1012 cm−2 0.90 +0.01 0.30 +0.01 3.4 +0.2 0.6 +0.1 0.8 +0.1 0.20 +0.01
−0.01 −0.01 −0.2 −0.1 −0.1 −0.01

HCO+ (2-1) τ
∫ max 0.2 +0.01
−0.01
0.07 +0.01
−0.01
0.49 +0.02
−0.02
0.13 +0.01
−0.01
0.18 +0.01
−0.01
0.05 +0.01
−0.0
τdv / km s−1 0.3 +0.01
−0.01
0.11 +0.01
−0.01
0.74 +0.02
−0.02
0.19 +0.02
−0.02
0.27 +0.01
−0.01
0.07 +0.01
−0.01
N / ×1012 cm−2 1.10 +0.01
−0.01
0.30 +0.01
−0.01
+0.2
5.6 −0.2 +0.1
0.7 −0.1 1.00 +0.01
−0.01
0.20 +0.01
−0.01

HCN(2-1) τ
∫ max 0.10 +0.01
−0.01
0.10 +0.02
−0.02
0.34 +0.03
−0.03
0.21 +0.03
−0.03
0.12 +0.02
−0.02
< 0.04
τdv / km s−1 0.14 +0.02
−0.02
0.15 +0.03
−0.03
0.51 +0.05
−0.04
0.31 +0.05
−0.05
0.18 +0.03
−0.03
< 0.08
N / ×1012 cm−2 +0.1
0.6 −0.1 +0.1
0.5 −0.1 +0.4
4.6 −0.4 +0.2
1.5 −0.2 +0.1
0.8 −0.1 < 0.3

HNC(1-0) τ
∫ max 0.02 +0.01
−0.01
0.02 +0.01
−0.01
0.08 +0.02
−0.02
< 0.04 0.03 +0.01
−0.01
< 0.03
τdv / km s−1 0.03 +0.01
−0.01
0.03 +0.02
−0.02
0.11 +0.02
−0.02
< 0.04 0.04 +0.02
−0.02
< 0.04
N / ×1011 cm−2 1.1 +0.4
−0.4
0.7 +0.5
−0.5
8.1 +1.5
−1.5
<2 1.4 +0.7
−0.7
< 0.7

H2 CO(3-2) τ
∫ max 0.02 +0.01
−0.01
0.02 +0.01
−0.01
0.10 +0.01
−0.01
< 0.02 0.03 +0.01
−0.01
0.02 +0.01
−0.01
τdv / km s−1 0.02 +0.01
−0.01
0.02 +0.01
−0.01
0.16 +0.01
−0.01
< 0.02 0.05 +0.01
−0.01
0.02 +0.01
−0.01
N / ×1013 cm−2 3.7 +0.2
−1.4
3.2 +0.8
−1.7
29 +2
−3 <2 7.0 +2.0
−0.8
3.3 +0.3
−1.1

Table 5. Continued from Table 4.

line of sight column densities, the calculations of which are and there will always be some interstellar medium which
described in a later section. exists between them.
Our observations of HCO+ (1-0) and HCO+ (2-1) provide
two well resolved absorption profiles from which it is possi-
4 TEMPERATURE ESTIMATES ble to estimate the excitation temperature of the absorption
regions represented by each of the 12 Gaussian best fit lines.
4.1 Excitation temperature estimates This requires that the gas is optically thin and in local ther-
The absorption profiles seen in Figs. 2 and 3 are produced modynamic equilibrium, but as we show in §4.2 this is not
by what we find is best described as the combination of 12 the case, so the values should only be treated as approxima-
Gaussian absorption regions. Most of the absorption regions tions.
have extremely narrow velocity dispersions of ∼ 1 km s−1 , Nevertheless, with this assumption the HCO+ (1-0) and
which are comparable to those of individual clouds in the HCO+ (2-1) velocity integrated optical depths are related by
Milky Way (Roman-Duval et al. 2010). Therefore, most of
the absorption regions detected can be approximated as in-
τ21 dv
∫
dividual molecular gas clouds, for which the excitation tem- 1 − exp(−hν21 /kTex )
=2 , (2)
τ10 dv
∫
perature can be estimated. Even for the broader absorption exp(hν10 /kTex ) − 1
regions (G7 and G12), which are likely small associations of
clouds, an average excitation temperature can still be found. where h and k are the Planck and Boltzmann constants,
We stress that this concept of individual molecular clouds is ν10 and ν21 are the rest frequencies of the HCO+ (1-0) and
an approximation given that there is no clear point where HCO+ (2-1) lines and Tex is the excitation temperature (Bo-
they will start and end, they will have internal structure, latto et al. 2003; Godard et al. 2010; Mangum & Shirley

MNRAS 000, 1–18 (2020)

 Molecular Absorption in Hydra-A 11
2015). The excitation temperatures found using Equation 2
are given in Table 3. The line of sight column densities of the molecular
The hyperfine structure components of the HCN(1-0) species whose absorption spectra are shown in Figs. 2 and
line are separated by frequencies similar to those of the 12 3 are given in Tables 4 and 5, where the assumed excita-
Gaussian absorption lines seen in this system. It is therefore tion temperature for each of the 12 absorption regions is
not possible to estimate the excitation temperature of the in- equal to that calculated as described in §4.1 and shown in
dividual absorption regions using the HCN(1-0) and HCN(2- Table 3. Using these bespoke excitation temperatures tight-
1) spectra, though an average can be estimated from the to- ens the correlation seen in the column densities compared
tal velocity integrated optical depth of the whole absorption with when a fixed excitation temperature is assumed for all
profile. This gives an excitation temperature of 5.5+2.0
−1.6
K, absorption regions. A corner plot showing how these col-
which compares well with the value of 5.8−0.7+0.7 K when the umn densities correlate to one another can be seen in Fig. 4.
same method is applied to the HCO+ (1-0) and HCO+ (2-1) Where a molecular species has been observed with multiple
spectra. rotational lines, e.g. CO(1-0) and CO(2-1), the column den-
sities shown in Fig. 4 are those calculated from the better
resolved (2-1) line.
4.2 Kinetic temperature estimate
The relative abundance of the HCN and HNC tautomers is
observed to depend upon the gas kinetic temperature, with
6 DISCUSSION
the ratio HCN/HNC increasing at higher temperatures due
to reactions which preferentially destroy the HNC molecule 6.1 A comparison to Milky Way and extragalactic
(Hernández Vera et al. 2017; Hacar et al. 2019). Where the absorption profiles
intensity ratio satisfies I (HCN)/I (HCN) ≤ 4, it is found to
correlate with kinetic temperature according to: Fig. 5 shows the HCO+ , HCN and HNC column densities of
  the molecular clouds in Hydra-A, as well as those found in
I(HCN) the Milky Way and other extragalactic sources up to rela-
Tkin = 10 × . (3)
I(HCN) tively high redshifts of z = 0.89. The column densities corre-
late well with those seen in the Milky Way, but are typically
Due to the HCN(1-0) line’s hyperfine structure, it is lower than in intervening absorber systems by two to three
only possible to estimate an average kinetic temperature for orders of magnitude. A difference this large is not likely to
the absorption profile as a whole, which we find to be 33+9
−8
K. be due to the high quality of the ALMA observations or
The errors quoted are determined from the combination of lower than assumed covering factors; even if the 12 absorp-
the uncertainty in the velocity integrated intensities of both tion regions were combined, this would still place the column
spectra and the uncertainty given by Hacar et al. (2019) for densities at the low end of the scale.
Eq. 3. Since Tex < Tkin , the absorbing gas is sub-thermally In Fig. 6 we show a comparison of the velocity disper-
excited i.e. it is not in thermal equilibrium. sion, excitation temperature and line of sight velocity for
each of the 12 absorption regions. Included in the top panel
are molecular clouds toward the galactic plane of the Milky
5 COLUMN DENSITY ESTIMATES Way, as well as those at radii of 4 - 8 kpc. This highlights fur-
ther similarities between the absorption regions of Hydra-A,
The total line of sight column density, Ntot , of the absorp- which reside in the high pressure environment of a bright-
tion regions can be found by using an estimated excitation est cluster galaxy, and those in the Milky Way. Although
temperature and assuming that the absorption is optically we have no strong indication of the distances of Hydra-A’s
thin. In general, molecular clouds from the centre of the galaxy, this suggests
8πν 3 g 1 1 1
∫ that the locations in which these two sets of clouds reside are
thin
Ntot = Q(Tex ) 3ul l τul dv , (4) fairly interchangeable and that their self-gravitation is sig-
c gu Aul R 1 − e−hνul /kTex
nificantly more important than the ambient pressures. The
where Q(Tex ) is the partition function, c is the speed of light, properties of the molecular clouds seen in Hydra-A and the
Aul is the Einstein coefficient of the observed transition and Milky way are also both similar to those predicted by accre-
g the level degeneracy, with the subscripts u and l represent- tion simulations (e.g. those of Gaspari et al. 2017).
ing the upper and lower levels (Godard et al. 2010; Mangum If the absorbing regions of molecular gas lie on ellipti-
& Shirley 2015). The factor R is the total intensity of the cal orbits, their velocities could have apparent shifts relative
hyperfine structure lines in the absorption profile, where the to the galaxy’s systemic velocity of up to a few tens of km
combined intensity of all hyperfine lines is normalized to s−1 . In the Keplerian regime, the most blueshifted absorp-
1. As previously stated, this calculation assumes that the tion should lie closest to the galaxy centre. In turn, this
absorption is optically thin. However, in some cases where could produce a trend between the cloud excitation tem-
τ ' 1 e.g. G2 of CO(2-1), HCO+ (2-1) and HCN(2-1), the perature and velocity as a result of heating from the AGN.
true column densities may be significantly higher than cal- Although in Hydra-A the highest excitation temperatures
culated. We therefore apply an optical depth correction fac- are seen in the most blueshifted clouds, the trend is not
tor from Mangum & Shirley (2015) to give a more accurate especially strong (see the centre panel of Fig. 6). This cor-
value for the line of sight column densities, relation has been observed within the Milky Way, though it
thin τ is weak and only visible with the detection of hundreds of
Ntot = Ntot . (5) molecular clouds (Roman-Duval et al. 2010).
1 − exp(−τ)

MNRAS 000, 1–18 (2020)

12 Tom Rose et al.

Column Densities (cm−2 ) Cloud

13
Velocity
10
(km s−1 )
CN

1012
10
HCO+

1012 y/x = 0.0001 0

y/x = 0.001
y/x = 0.01
HCN

10 12 y/x = 0.1 −10

y/x = 1
y/x = 10
1012 y/x = 100 −20
HNC

10 11 y/x = 1000

−30
CO

14
10
13

−40
1012 1013
H2 CO

1014 CN
1013

1014 1015 1016 1012 1013 1011 1012 1013 1011 1012 1013 1011 1012
CO CN HCO+ HCN HNC

Figure 4. A comparison of the line of sight column densities of CO, CN, HCO+ , HCN, HNC, 13 CO and H2 CO. The column densities
are calculated from the 12 Gaussian fits applied to the absorption profiles shown in Figs. 2 and 3, using Equation 5. The excitation
temperature assumed for each absorption region is that estimated in §4.1 and given in Table 3. The colour of each point represents the
central velocity of the absorption region relative to the stellar recession velocity of the galaxy, which itself is a good approximation for the
velocity of the central supermassive black hole. For CO, HCO+ and HCN, which were observed with both the (1-0) and (2-1) rotational
lines, the column densities are calculated using the (2-1) line in which the absorption is best resolved.

The velocity dispersions of most clouds, shown in the ular clouds are related by:
lower plot of Fig. 6, are very narrow and lie between 0.5 and    0.5
σ

1.4 km s−1 , indicating that they are due to individual molec- =
D
. (6)
ular clouds. The outlying absorption regions with higher ve- km s−1 pc
locity dispersions are likely small associations of molecular
This relation was first shown by Larson (1981) and its ap-
clouds which are not resolved by the observations.
proximate form has been supported by many more recent
The absorption profiles seen in Hydra-A also bear a
works (e.g. Solomon et al. 1987; Vazquez-Semadeni et al.
strong resemblance to those seen in other systems such
2007; McKee & Ostriker 2007; Ballesteros-Paredes et al.
as Centaurus-A, and the less well studied brightest cluster
2011). Hydra-A is a brightest cluster galaxy and so its ther-
galaxy NGC6868 (Israel et al. 1990; Rose et al. 2019b). In
mal pressure is many times higher than that of the Milky
all three cases there are two deep absorption lines separated
Way. If the molecular gas behaves in a reactive way to this
by ∼ 50 − 100 km s−1 , as well as a more extended absorp-
different environment, then the relation may be less applica-
tion complex. Like Hydra-A, Centaurus-A also has a close to
ble. However, as Fig. 5 shows, the clouds’ environment does
edge-on molecular gas disc and an extremely compact core
not result in significantly higher line of sight column densi-
(Israel et al. 1990).
ties and so the relation should still hold true. The implied
sizes of the 12 absorption regions detected in Hydra-A are
given in Table 3.
By further assuming the absorption regions are in virial
equilibrium, their total masses, Mtot , can be estimated using
6.2 Cloud size and mass estimates
the virial theorem:
The similarities between the clumpy interstellar medium of
the Milky Way and that which we see along our line of sight
Dσ 2
to the core of Hydra-A allow us derive estimates of the size Mtot = , (7)
and mass of the molecular clouds observed. Within the Milky 2G
Way, the velocity dispersion, σ, and diameter, D, of molec- where D is the cloud diameter and G is the gravitational

MNRAS 000, 1–18 (2020)

 Molecular Absorption in Hydra-A 13

Hydra-A, this work SgrB2 (Greaves & Nyman, 1996)

Centaurus A, (Wiklind & Combes, 1997a) MW, diffuse ISM (Lucas & Liszt, 1994,1996)
B3 1504+337, absorber at z=0.67, (Wiklind & Combes, 1996b) MW, diffuse ISM (Liszt & Lucas, 2001)
PKS1830-210, absorber at z=0.89, (Wiklind & Combes, 1996a) MW, star forming regions (Godard+, 2010)
PKS1413+135, absorber at z=0.25, (Wiklind & Combes, 1997b) MW, diffuse ISM (Ando+, 2016)
PKS1830-211, absorber at z=0.89, (Muller+, 2011) MW, central molecular zone (Riquelme+, 2018)

1015
1014 1014

1014
1013 1013
HCN (cm−2 )

HNC (cm−2 )

HNC (cm−2 )
1013
1012 1012

1012
1011 1011

1011
1010 1010
1011 1012 1013 1014 1015 1011 1012 1013 1014 1015 1011 1012 1013 1014 1015
+ −2 + −2 −2
HCO (cm ) HCO (cm ) HCN (cm )

Figure 5. The column densities of HCO+ , HCN and HNC seen in Hydra-A (circles), Centaurus-A (stars), intervening absorbers i.e.
extragalactic sources lying in front of background quasars (squares), Sagittarius B2 (crosses), and the Milky Way (pentagons). The
original data are taken from Wiklind & Combes (1997a, 1996b,a, 1997b); Muller et al. (2011); Greaves & Nyman (1996); Lucas & Liszt
(1994, 1996); Liszt & Lucas (2001); Godard et al. (2010); Ando et al. (2016); Riquelme et al. (2018).

constant. The total masses of the 12 absorption regions are observations by Taylor (1996) at the lower frequency 1.35
given in Table 3. GHz show hints of structure on similar scales.

6.4 Continuum variability

6.3 An estimate of the continuum source’s size
Hydra-A has been attentively studied at a wide range of
The above estimate of the total cloud mass can be used in
frequencies over several decades. The left panel of Fig. 7
conjunction with the line of sight column density of molec-
shows the galaxy’s spectral energy distribution and the right
ular hydrogen derived from X-ray observations to estimate
shows the continuum variability of its core and radio lobes,
the size of the continuum source against which absorption
as seen with the ALMA observations presented in this paper.
is seen. This will only provide a rough estimate due to the
The left panel of Fig. 7 shows that no significant change
uncertainties in the cloud masses and the likely difference in
in the flux density of the core, against which the absorption
the size of the continuum source between the frequencies of
is detected, has taken place over the two year time range in
the X-ray and radio observations.
which the observations were taken. The flux density of the
The total mass inferred from the molecular absorption
lobes is expected to be constant and the significant scatter
seen in Hydra-A is 4 × 104 M  and Russell et al. (2013) find
present is a result of the limited angular resolution of the
a line of sight column density of NH = 3.5 × 1022 cm−2 from
observations, with the lobes often spreading out close to the
X-ray observations. These values imply that Hydra-A’s cen-
edge of the field of view where beam corrections are large.
tral continuum source has an apparent diameter of 7 pc,
assuming it appears circular along the line of sight.
The above value is likely an overestimate because most
6.5 Absorption variability
of the mass we estimate in §6.2 comes from the broadest ab-
sorption regions. These are unlikely to be individual molecu- CO(2-1) absorption was first detected in Hydra-A in Octo-
lar clouds in virial equilibrium, but rather collections of un- ber 2016 (Rose et al. 2019a), and a repeat observation was
resolved molecular clouds. To make some correction for this, carried out in October 2018 as part of the main survey pre-
we use the very simple assumption that the widest clouds, sented in this paper. In Fig. 8 we show the absorption pro-
G7 and G12, are each in fact the combination of two molec- files seen against the galaxy’s bright radio core for these two
ular clouds, with a velocity dispersion half of the original observations. Across the majority of the absorption profile,
value. This reduces their estimated diameters by a factor of the two spectra are consistent within the noise levels and
four, and their masses by a factor of sixteen. There are now there is little hint of variability. However, between −20 and
twice as many clouds, so the overall mass of these absorp- −5 km s−1 a decrease in the absorption strength appears to
tion features is reduced by a factor of eight. This new mass have taken place over the intervening two years. This ve-
results in an estimated continuum diameter of 4 pc. VLBA locity range does not correspond well to any component of

MNRAS 000, 1–18 (2020)

14 Tom Rose et al.
has a combined significance of 3.4σ (calculated from a χ2
CMB temperature @ z = 0.054 distribution test)1 .
Hydra-A, this work
MW, Roman-Duval+ (2010) If this apparent change in the absorption profile is real,
MW, Gong+ (2016) then it will almost certainly be due to either a change in the
continuum source against which the absorption is observed,
Excitation Temp. (K)

or due to a movement of the molecular clouds responsible for

30 the absorption. Below we discuss these explanations, both
of which are likely to be true to a greater or lesser extent.
The unresolved continuum source we observe the ab-
20
sorption against may be made up of several components,
each covered to varying degrees by different gas clouds.
10 This would produce absorption along multiple lines of sight,
which then combines to make the single absorption profile
we observe against the unresolved continuum source. This
0 is consistent with 1.35 GHz VLBA observations by Taylor
0 1 2 3 4 (1996), which show the continuum source at high angular
−1
σ (km s ) resolution. Spatially resolved H I absorption is seen, most
likely caused by different lines of sight toward the radio core
and the knots of the galaxy’s jets. If this is the case, we
Excitation Temp. (K)

30 would detect no absorption which appears to be optically

thick, and the reduced strength of the absorption may be
due to a decrease in flux from one particular component
20 of the continuum source. This would result in weaker ab-
sorption from that line of sight, but leave the remaining ab-
sorption unaffected. Although there is no significant change
10 in the continuum’s strength over this time period (see Fig.
7), the dimming required to produce the small decrease in
0 absorption could well be within the noise levels of the mea-
−40 −20 0 surements of the continuum flux density. Even if the total
−1 continuum emission is not varying, relativistic and trans-
Velocity (km s )
verse motions in the hot spots of the continuum source could
change the background illumination of the absorbing clouds.
4 An angular precession of the continuum source could
also result in a change in the background illumination of the
σ (km s−1 )

molecular gas. Nawaz et al. (2016) found a precession period

of ∼ 1 Myr in Hydra-A from hydrodynamical simulations of
its jet-intracluster medium interactions. In a two year time
2
frame this translates to an angular precession of 2.6”, which
sweeps over a transverse distance of 0.01 pc at a radius of
1 kpc from the continuum source, or 0.1 pc at a radius of
10 kpc. Given the typical size of the molecular clouds of
0 around 1 pc (see Table 3) and that they likely have a frac-
−40 −20 0 tal substructure, the latter seems plausible. However, with
Velocity (km s−1 ) a precessing continuum source the level of variability would
increase as the distance of the clouds from the nucleus in-
creases. To observe a significant level of variability between
Figure 6. A comparison of the velocity dispersions, σ, excitation −20 and −5 km s−1 , but little hint of it anywhere else re-
temperatures and line of sight velocities of the absorbing clouds quires there to be a group of clouds close to the continuum
traced by the absorption profiles shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The
source where the angular change encompasses a negligible
excitation temperatures are those derived from the HCO+ (1-0)
and HCO+ (2-1) spectra. In the top plot, we show molecular clouds
linear scale relative to the cloud size, and one group at very
of the Milky Way observed at galactocentric radii of 4 - 8 kpc (red large distances, with no clouds in between. Further, the edge
pentagons, Roman-Duval et al. 2010) and those in star forming on disc of Hydra-A has a radius of around 2.5 kpc, so at 10
regions toward the galactic plane (blue pentagons, Gong et al. kpc the column density of cold molecular gas present is likely
2016). low compared with smaller radii.
A variation in the absorption could also be produced

1 A shift of ∼ 0.1 mJy has been applied to the spectrum extracted

from the 2018 observation. This error appears as a result of the
the multi-Gaussian best fit and so is unlikely to be due to a subtraction of the emission from the two spectra, where the degree
change in the absorption of any individual molecular cloud. to which the emission compensates for the absorption cannot be
The variability of the spectrum over the velocity range in known precisely (see Rose et al. 2019a, fig. 6 for a plot showing
which absorption is seen (approximately -50 to 10 km s−1 ) the CO(2-1) emission from the core)

MNRAS 000, 1–18 (2020)

 Molecular Absorption in Hydra-A 15

250
α = −0.5 58500 Core, α = −0.5 220

Flux Density @ 150GHz (mJy)

α = −1.2 Lobes, α = −1.2

Observation Frequency (GHz)

ALMA - Core
58000 200 200
103 ALMA - Lobes
Flux Density (mJy)

Modified Julian Date

IRAM 30m
SCUBA 2
57500
MUSTANG
180
57000 150
Herschel
WMAP 160
Planck 56500
100
56000 140

102 55500 50 120

55000
100
0
102 103 58000 58500
Frequency (GHz) Modified Julian Date

Figure 7. Left: The spectral energy distribution of Hydra-A, produced with data taken since March 2008 using a range of observatories.
With the exception of those from ALMA, the observations are of a low angular resolution and consequently include flux from both the
radio core and radio lobes. The orange and blue lines show power law fits to the core plus radio lobes and to the resolved core. The
increase in emission at 103 GHz is from infrared emission due to dust heating. Right: Six ALMA flux density measurements of Hydra-A,
all adjusted to give the implied flux density at 150 GHz assuming a power-law spectrum with α = −0.5 for the radio core and α = −1.2
for the radio lobes. This shows a stable continuum flux density from Hydra-A’s core and from its lobes (more scatter is seen in the flux
density of the lobes because in some cases, they spread out close to the edge of the observation’s the field of view where beam corrections
are large).

1.2 G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 G8 G9 G10 G11 G12

Cont. Normalized Flux

1.0

0.8

0.6 CO(2-1), Oct 2016

0.4 CO(2-1), Oct 2018
2
Normalized Residual

−2
Change (2016 minus 2018)
1σ noise level
−4
−60 −40 −20 0 20
Velocity (km s−1)

Figure 8. Top: The overlaid absorption profiles of two CO(2-1) spectra taken in October 2016 and October 2018. The two spectra are
extracted from a region with a size equal to the synthesized beam’s FWHM centred on Hydra-A’s bright and compact radio core. The
absorption is largely consistent given the noise levels, though a small difference appears between −20 and −5 km s−1 . The G1-12 markers
indicate the central velocities of each component of the 12-Gaussian fit made to the spectra in Figs. 2 and 3. Bottom: The change seen
in the absorption between the two observations, with the grey band indicating the 1σ noise level of the residual. The variability of the
spectrum over the velocity range in which absorption is seen (approximately -50 to 10 km s−1 ) has a combined significance of 3.4σ, as
calculated from a χ2 distribution test.

MNRAS 000, 1–18 (2020)

16 Tom Rose et al.
by transverse movement of the molecular gas responsible for sorption and make the true optical depths unclear. HCO+ is
the absorption between −20 and −5 km s−1 . However, even particularly useful because it lacks any hyperfine structure.
a relatively small molecular cloud with a diameter of 0.1 pc We have compared the line of sight column densities, ve-
and a large transverse velocity of 500 km s−1 will take ∼ 200 locity dispersions and excitation temperatures of the molec-
years to fully cross the line of sight, assuming a point-like ular clouds seen in Hydra-A to those of the Milky Way. The
continuum source. Particularly small and dense, inhomoge- two populations are largely indistinguishable, implying that
neous, or fast moving molecular clouds would therefore be the high pressure environment of a brightest cluster galaxy
required for this effect to be seen within a two year time has negligible effect on the molecular clouds when compared
frame. The transverse velocities of molecular clouds are or- with their self-gravitation.
ders of magnitude less than the relativistic and potentially The line of sight absorption seen against Hydra-A’s
superluminal motions of the knots in the jets at the core bright radio core has shown variation at 3.4 σ significance
of the continuum source, so this can ruled out with a fair between ALMA Cycle 4 and 6 observations. These obser-
degree of confidence. vations are separated by two years, so if this variability is
Alterations in the cloud chemistry could also result in genuine it is occurring on galactically short timescales. The
variability. Although this can occur on cosmologically short first of two likely explanations for the variability is a multi-
timescales on the order of 105 years (Harada et al. 2019), this component continuum source, one component of which has
is much greater than the two year interval over which we de- decreased in brightness or has seen relativistic movement in
tect variability. Only a change induced by significant alter- a hot spot, in turn giving decreased absorption along one
ations to the local cosmic ray field, for example, by a nearby particular line of sight. A second possible but less likely ex-
supernova could occur quickly enough. Although physically planation is that one of the many absorbing clouds, or groups
feasible, this ‘by chance’ explanation in unlikely given that of absorbing clouds, has significant transverse motion such
absorption variability has also been seen in several similar in- that it no longer covers the continuum source in the same
tervening absorber systems (e.g. Wiklind & Combes 1997b; way.
Muller et al. 2011).
When considering the above explanations it should be
noted that clear absorption is still seen within this velocity
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
range in CN(2-1), HCO+ (2-1) and HCN+ (2-1), though this
may well have been stronger still if all of the observations We thank the referee for their time and comments, which
had been taken in October 2016 rather than October 2018. have helped us to improve the paper. We are grateful to
Further observations of these lines, where this absorption is Rick Perley for providing the VLA image used in Fig. 1.
strongest and any changes would be more evident, would T.R. is supported by the Science and Technology Facil-
therefore track any variability in more detail and reveal its ities Council (STFC) through grant ST/R504725/1.
cause. A.C.E. acknowledges support from STFC grant
ST/P00541/1.
M.G. is supported by the Lyman Spitzer Jr. Fellow-
ship (Princeton University) and by NASA Chandra GO8-
19104X/GO9-20114X and HST GO- 15890.020-A grants.
7 CONCLUSIONS
This paper makes use of the following
We present ALMA observations of CO, 13 CO, CN, SiO, ALMA data: ADS/JAO.ALMA#2016.1.01214.S,
HCO+ , HCN, HNC and H2 CO molecular absorption lines ADS/JAO.ALMA#2017.1.00629.S and
seen against the bright radio core of Hydra-A. Their nar- ADS/JAO.ALMA#2018.1.01471.S. ALMA is a part-
row velocity dispersions (typically ∼ 1km s−1 ) are similar to nership of ESO (representing its member states), NSF
those seen molecular cloud complexes of the Milky Way and (USA) and NINS (Japan), together with NRC (Canada),
indicate that the observations are tracing individual clouds MOST and ASIAA (Taiwan), and KASI (Republic of
of cold molecular gas. The molecular gas clouds typically Korea), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. The
have excitation temperatures of 5 - 10 K, diameters of 1 - Joint ALMA Observatory is operated by ESO, AUI/NRAO
10 pc and masses of a few tens to a few thousands of M  . and NAOJ.
The precise origins and locations of the absorbing
molecular clouds within Hydra-A are difficult to constrain,
though they are most likely to be within the inner few kpc
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MNRAS 000, 1–18 (2020)

18 Tom Rose et al.

1.1 CN(2-1), J=3/2-1/2, F=3/2-3/2

CN(2-1), J=3/2-1/2, F=5/2-3/2

1.0
Continuum Normalized Flux

0.9

0.8 CN(2-1), J=3/2-1/2, F=1/2-1/2

CN(2-1), J=3/2-1/2, F=3/2-1/2

0.7
CN(2-1), J=5/2-3/2, F=5/2-3/2
CN(2-1), J=5/2-3/2, F=7/2-5/2
0.6 CN(2-1), J=5/2-3/2, F=3/2-1/2
v = -43.1 km/s
CN(2-1), J=5/2-3/2, F=3/2-3/2
v = -4.0 km/s
0.5
215.25 215.20 215.15 215.10 215.05 215.00 214.95 214.90 214.85
Frequency / GHz

Figure A1. The spectrum of CN(2-1) seen against the line of sight to Hydra-A’s bright radio core, which contains absorption from several
of the molecule’s hyperfine structure lines. The intensity and rest frequencies of these hyperfine structure lines are given in Table A1.
Markers on the plot indicate where absorption would be expected from the dominant hyperfine structure lines due to the two strongest
points of absorption at −43.1 and −4.0 km s−1 . When analysing the CN(2-1) absorption in the main body of the paper, we focus on the
combination of hyperfine structure lines seen between approximately 215.15 − 215.25 GHz and disregard the rest.

tween them does have a tangible effect on the apparent ve-

locity dispersion, σ, of the absorption features. We therefore
make a slight modification to the rigid Gaussian fitting pro-
cess used for the other spectra which have no or negligible
hyperfine structure. When fitting to all of the other spectra
we use a 12-Gaussian line, where each Gaussian has a fixed
vcen and σ, but varying amplitude. To estimate the effect of
the CN molecule’s hyperfine structure, we simulate each of
the 12 Gaussian features as they would appear due to the
three overlapping hyperfine structure lines. This produces
what appears to be a single, stronger Gaussian absorption
line with a slightly wider σ than the individual lines. This
slightly wider σ is due the separation of the hyperfine struc-
ture lines. When a single Gaussian is fitted to each of these
simulated absorption features, we find the increase in the
σ caused by the hyperfine structure (typically 0.1 − 0.3 km
s−1 ). When making the 12-Gaussian fit to the CN(2-1) spec-
trum shown in Fig. 3, we therefore increase the σ of each
component Gaussian line accordingly. This process has also
been tested for HCN(2-1), which contains similar hyperfine
structure. However, we find and unmodified fit works best,
most likely because for HCN(2-1), around 70 percent of the
flux is contained within two hyperfine lines just 0.0001 GHz
apart.

This paper has been typeset from a TEX/LATEX file prepared by

the author.

MNRAS 000, 1–18 (2020)

 Molecular Absorption in Hydra-A 19

Rest frequency (GHz) CN Transition Relative intensity

226.28741850 J=3/2-3/2, F=1/2-1/2 0.0060

226.29894270 J=3/2-3/2, F=1/2-3/2 0.0048
226.30303720 J=3/2-3/2, F=3/2-1/2 0.0049
226.31454000 J=3/2-3/2, F=3/2-3/2 0.0116
226.33249860 J=3/2-3/2, F=3/2-5/2 0.0053
226.34192980 J=3/2-3/2, F=5/2-3/2 0.0055
226.35987100 J=3/2-3/2, F=5/2-5/2 0.0282
226.61657140 J=3/2-1/2, F=1/2-3/2 0.0063
226.63219010 J=3/2-1/2, F=3/2-3/2 0.0498
226.65955840 J=3/2-1/2, F=5/2-3/2 0.1660
226.66369280 J=3/2-1/2, F=1/2-1/2 0.0495
226.67931140 J=3/2-1/2, F=3/2-1/2 0.0616
226.87419080 J=5/2-3/2, F=5/2-3/2 0.1685
226.87478130 J=5/2-3/2, F=7/2-5/2 0.2669
226.87589600 J=5/2-3/2, F=3/2-1/2 0.1002
226.88742020 J=5/2-3/2, F=3/2-3/2 0.0319
226.89212800 J=5/2-3/2, F=5/2-5/2 0.0317
226.90535740 J=5/2-3/2, F=3/2-5/2 0.0013

Table A1. Hyperfine structure lines of CN(2-1) (Muller et al. 2005).

Rest frequency (GHz) HCN Transition Relative intensity

88.63393600 J=1-0, F=0-1 0.1111

88.63041600 J=1-0, F=1-1 0.3333
88.63184700 J=1-0, F=2-1 0.5556

177.25967700 J=2-1,F=2-2 0.0833

177.25992300 J=2-1,F=1-0 0.1111
177.26111000 J=2-1,F=2-1 0.2500
177.26122300 J=2-1,F=3-2 0.4667
177.26201220 J=2-1,F=1-2 0.0056
177.26344500 J=2-1,F=1-1 0.0833

Table A2. Hyperfine structure lines of HCN(1-0) and HCN(2-1) (Muller et al. 2005).

MNRAS 000, 1–18 (2020)